Looking Glass Sampler

with Alicia Paulson

The canon of work we present-day needleworkers have inherited is endlessly fascinating to me: The farther back into it you look, the more interesting and even modern-seeming it gets. I love to take forgotten sources and traditional materials, techniques, and designs and out of them create something fresh, personal, and uniquely contemporary.

This little embroidery sampler combines several styles, materials, and stitches. Using decorative embroidery, cross-stitch, and crewel, it is stitched on a linen ground and framed in a simple 5-inch hoop. Incorporating a smattering of various fibers, including six-strand cotton floss, hand-overdyed variegated floss, linen floss, wool yarn, and perle cotton, it also employs a few techniques (like using waste canvas) you might not have ever tried.

Join me as I walk you though every step of creating this sampler, including preparing the fabric, reading embroidery charts, transferring the design, and, of course, stitching, to create a sampler that incorporates your own initials – as well as your own incomparable stitching “stamp” – and begin a journey into the wonderland of hand embroidery.

Workshop supply list coming soon.